Writing 1 Class Notes -- April 17

Greetings!

We had a good class yesterday.  For our Quick Write, I asked the students to come up with a unique name for a school that they created.  Again, they were very creative.

I handed back their rough drafts of the essays about either a character or a theme from A Connecticut Yankee.  They had been working on filling out charts for both themes and character analysis while they were reading the book.  They did a good job, and I look forward to reading their final copies.  I also handed back the essay exams that they wrote last week.

The students had also been writing up questions to use as part of our "final" baseball game.  We took our game to the church's sanctuary and played a few innings.  It was a good test of the students' recall of details and events.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read the following poems:

     -- Even Such Is Time (p.1)

     -- Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day? (p.1)

     -- "Death, Be Not Proud" (p.2)

     -- On the World (p. 4)

     -- On His Blindness (p. 5)

     -- To My Dear and Loving Husband  (p. 6)

     -- The Tiger (p. 10)

     -- The Sick Rose (p. 11)

     -- I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (p. 12)

     -- Ozymandias  (p. 16)

     -- The Arrow and the Song (p. 20)

     -- The Eagle (p. 22)

     -- Pippa's Song (p. 23)

Have a great week!

Mrs. Prichard

PS.  Some students were absent last week.  If this e-mail doesn't answer questions, let me know.

Writing 1 Class Notes -- April 10

Greetings!

We had a good class following our week-long Spring Break.  It seems that some students enjoyed having time off from their CHAT classes.

At the beginning of the Quick Write, I had the students select a noun.  At this point we talked about common, proper and abstract nouns.  Once they had chosen their nouns, I gave them the following quote by Rachel Carson, a naturalist and a writer:  "The discipline of the writer is to learn to be still and listen to what his subject has to tell him."  I had the student take time to "listen" to what comes to mind about the noun. 

Following the Quick Write, the students wrote a short essay exam about A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.  I had mentioned before the Break that it was on the syllabus that the final exam would be today.  The test had 3 simple, open-ended questions:
1.  "My favorite character was __________ because ......"  (Give at least 3 reasons)
2.  "My favorite event in the book was ________ because ...."  (Give at least 3 reasons)
3.  "I will/ will not recommend the book because ....."  (Give at least 3 reasons)

The students quietly and studiously worked on the questions.  I look forward to reading their insights.  Next week we'll play our Baseball game.  They handed in their rough drafts of their written responses to the book.  I'll correct them and give them back next week.

Following the test, we worked together on a worksheet about commas.  I'm hoping that by the end of my class, the students will have a better handle on those elusive little bits on punctuation.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Select 3 poems from the next book that we should read.
-- Hand in ALL worksheets for ACY
-- Extra Credit: 
     -- Bring an article on the Oxford comma.
     -- Baseball questions for the game next week -- 1  point per question with an answer.

Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard